Human Sacrifice

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

“TELL ME WHERE MY SISTER IS!” Zach screamed, pinning Brandon to the wall by his neck and squeezing down on his windpipe. The boy screamed and choked against Zach’s grip until he nodded and Zach let go.

“Scott has her” he coughed, holding his throat as he gasped for air. Kara slapped Zach and pulled Brandon away from him, protecting him like a mother with a newborn child. Zach paced back and forward pulling at his hair in worry.

“You’ll go grey if you get stressed a lot y’know” Jay sighed, handing him a bottle. He drank it and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, handing it back to his friend. Zach missed me, I was the only family he had left after what happened to mum. Zach had stayed with dad for a while though which is why we never saw him.

“You’ve changed” Kara spat at Zach. “You’re just as bad as them now, all anger and rage and no actual feelings. Your dad made you into a monster, and you know it’s best for Brix to be sacrificed instead of becoming a monster like you!”

“MY FATHER DID NOTHING OK” Zach yelled at her, but Brandon pushes her out of the room to protect her. Zach had very violent outbursts and I had firsthand experience of them. I had the scar to prove it. “You dare throw that fork at your sister and I swear to God I will send you to anger management!” But he did, and he got away with it.

Jay sighed and sat Zach down at the table in the middle of the warehouse, sitting opposite him. “Your father is the most powerful vampire in the history of everything. That’s why you’re a vampire. Brix...isn’t. She’s human, and she’ll die a human when she’s killed. You’ll still be alone Zach even if you save your sister”

“I just don’t want her to be sacrificed” Zach sniffed. “She doesn’t deserve to die so young. She deserves to live a long life and die naturally”

“Then maybe you should just accept the fact that she’s not going to escape, or be rescued. You can’t run from your fate” Brandon sighed. “Scott really likes Brix, you can tell by the way he’s so protective over her. He died a little inside every time he remembers he has to sacrifice her eventually”

“So? I don’t see how that is my problem” Zach growled, smashing his fists into the table at the thought that he could already be too late to save me.

“Look, Zach. Patrique knows that Scott has feelings for Brix, and he’ll go to any lengths to get his brother back for the years of torment Scott put him through as a child. I heard stuff that you might find interesting. Monica has told Scott that he should pick Brix instead of her, because Brix is a stronger person. Patrique is going to kidnap and kill Brix, unless you help”

With a stretch, I woke up. My body ached all over and I remembered what had happened. However, the room I woke up in wasn’t my own. I swallowed and sat up, covering myself with the duvet. Patrique laughed. “We didn’t, y’know, did we?” I shook.

“Ha no. I got you out of the cell and you wanted a shower, so to stop people knowing that you were out, I let you shower up here. Then you fell asleep” he smiled, handing me a pile of new clothes. “I’m not that low on my standards”

“Charming, you’d be lucky to be with a girl like me actually” I replied with a smile as I picked up the clothes and walked into the bathroom. I got ready and fixed my makeup before walking out again. “Sorry Gwen is a little over-protective, she did date every guy in our school”

“Every guy?” he swallowed, putting emphasis on the word every, dragging it out longer than it need to be for me to notice. With a small smirk across my lips I nodded and watched as thoughts ran across his face. It was obvious that he was slightly envious, worried and also quite angry, Gwen probably lied.

“Yup, she went out with every guy”

“Well well. Anyway, Scott said he wants you to attend dinner with him tonight” Patrique smiled. I blinked. Surely that was Monica’s job? Saying job made it sound like a chore, which was another good reason why I preferred my fate to hers. Nevertheless, Scott was going to change Monica soon and Patrique with Gwen, and that would be a painful experience.

“No offence to your brother or anything, but I really don’t want to go to dinner with him. How can I tell him I don’t want to?” I shook. One by one, he flicked through the shirts in his wardrobe and I realised he owned more clothes than my family combined, and I had a large extended family. He picked out a change of clothes and hung them over a chair.

“You have to go to dinner with him, just as I have to go to dinner with Elwyn, but that’s tomorrow, and I’m having dinner with Gwen tonight. It’s to discuss how the sacrifice ceremony takes place and what is expected of you on that day” he said whilst finding a tie that matched. I swallowed; a dinner to discuss how to behave whilst I died, sounded really fun.

“I really don’t want to think about that though” I sighed. I looked over the clothes he’d picked out: a white t-shirt, denim jeans (that seemed baggier than his stick thin figure) and trainers, with a newly-added black tie. I shook my head and sighed. “You can’t wear that to dinner”

He looked at me confused. I took this into my own hands and flicked through the endless shirts in the walk-in closet. I picked out a red shirt, black trousers and red converse, with a white tie. He looked at me with a hint of ‘I’m impressed’ but also ‘why do you even care this much?’ and other things.

“Look, you want to make Gwen like you?” I asked, looking back at him as he held the pile of clothes I’d picked. He nodded slowly. “Well then, you need to act like a gentleman.  If you went dressed casually she’d think that you don’t care about making an effort when you’re with her. Girls want to feel like people care about them. Dressed like this though, and she’ll know that you want to be there and you’re also showing the effort you’ve gone to for this date. When you go to dinner with Elwyn tomorrow you can go casually” I said, looking down.

“Brix, can I ask you something?” he asked, looking up at me. I avoided his eyes and nodded. “Have you ever had a boyfriend?”

The answer was simple: no. I looked at him and shook my head. “No, I haven’t, and I never will now”

“What you just explained to me sounded more like your feelings than something you’d find on an article or something. You said that to me because you were expressing the things that would make you happy, weren’t you?” he frowned, holding his hand out to me.

I felt tears well in my eyes as I forced myself to nod. I didn’t want him to know, I didn’t want to make it obvious but I needed to say it. I just wanted to know what it felt like to be loved, I wanted to know what it was like for someone to call me beautiful, or spend the rest of their life with me. I took his hand as he pulled me into a hug and I felt my tears spill out as I sobbed into him.